Red Sox-Twins: Jeremy Hermida Helps John Lackey, Boston Double-Up Minny, 6-3

Two days after the pomp and circumstance of opening their new stadium, Minnesotans were reminded of what baseball in April will REALLY mean in the North Star State.

Gone were the partly cloudy skies of Monday afternoon...and while the temperature remained unseasonably mild (73 degrees), the game was played amid falling raindrops beginning in the third inning.

If you watched the game on television, you know that broadcasters Don Orsillo and Jerry Remy were talking about the newly achieved "novelty" of outdoor baseball in the Twin Cities and the vagaries of the weather in the northern states in April.

No sooner had the Rem-Dawg predicted that the first rain would evoke a standing ovation from the fans—as an homage to playing outdoors—that the rain came and the fans gave a loud cheer.

Afterwards, Minnesota OF Michael Cuddyer said, “If there’s one thing I hate more than playing in the cold, it’s rain. I can’t stand playing in the rain.” Well, Mike, get used to it. You guys wanted the new ballpark, and now you’ve got it. Minnesota is what Minnesota is.

But the rain seemed to have little effect on the efforts of Red Sox starter John Lackey, who provided the club with a second consecutive strong outing. He was staked to an early 2-0 advantage. He had a little blip in the third inning, when he allowed the only two runs he would surrender in the contest, but otherwise held the Twins scoreless.

That’s not to say it was an optimal effort, as it clearly wasn’t. He barely threw 60 percent of his pitches for strikes and walked four batters in his outing...but ultimately, the game is about scoring runs, and he only allowed two runs over 6.2 IP. It was good enough.

Meanwhile, Twins starter Kevin Slowey plodded along through his five-inning effort, allowing three runs on five hits and four walks in his effort. But it was a tedious performance to watch, as he and C Joe Mauer had trouble getting on the same page—necessitating several conferences at the mound to talk about pitch selection.

Slowey took the blame for those discussions: “A lot of that is on me, really. It’s up to me to talk to Joe about what I want to do (before the game begins).”

The Red Sox took the lead before Slowey recorded an out. Marco Scutaro, batting leadoff once again in place of Jacoby Ellsbury (who may return to the lineup on Friday), singled to left field to start the game. Dustin Pedroia chased him home with a double to stake the Olde Towne Team to an early lead.

They doubled their advantage in the second inning as JD Drew walked and advanced around the bases on a wild pitch, ground out, and a Marco Scutaro RBI single.

Lackey ran into a little trouble in the bottom of the third inning as the Twins rallied to tie the game. LF Delmon Young doubled into right field to lead off the frame. He advanced to third base on an grounder.

After a pop-out and a walk to CF Denard Span (one of four he drew in the game), 2B Orlando Hudson singled to center field to drive in Young and send Span to third base. Mauer then reached on an infield single to plate Span with the tying run.

Pedroia homered with two out in the top of the fifth inning to give the Red Sox a tenuous 3-2 lead. Lackey breezed through the fifth and sixth innings, allowing only one baserunner, but ran into trouble in the seventh. He gave way to southpaw reliever Hideki Okajima with two on and two out and Mauer due to bat.

Victor Martinez boxed Okajima’s second pitch, allowing both baserunners to advance into scoring position. The lefty then intentionally walked Mauer to bring 1B Justin Morneau to the plate...he retired the big first baseman on a pop-up to escape unscathed.

Of his efforts, Okajima said, “It was a difficult situation, but I have prepared to be in this kind of situation.... I feel fortunate to be able to get out of that and get the results.’’

The Sox added some insurance in the top of the eighth inning off righty Jesse Crain. They loaded the bases with one out, but it appeared they might not take advantage of the opportunity when CF Mike Cameron flied out to shallow left field.

The next hitter, Jeremy Hermida, drove a 2-1 pitch into the left-center field gap. The ball sliced away from Span, who attempted a diving catch. Alas, his effort was embarrassingly inadequate...the ball rolled to the wall for a bases-clearing double, extending the lead to 6-2.

Daniel Bard pitched the bottom of the eighth and was hit HARD. He surrendered a leadoff home run to Cuddyer, a long fly out to DH Jason Kubel, and a missile-like double to Delmon Young that just missed being a home run (by no more than two feet). Thankfully, he settled down to record the final two outs and then turned the game over to Jonathan Papelbon in the ninth inning.

As has happened all too often over the last two seasons, Pappy struggled through his inning of work, allowing two runners into scoring position and bringing the tying run to the plate before finally retiring Cuddyer on a routine fly out to right field to record his third save.

Hermida has six RBI and a hit in all five games he’s played in.

Ortiz struck out twice more, giving him 13 in 26 at-bats. He also chipped in with a double. Terry Francona still has faith in his big DH: “Guys need time to settle in. If I don’t let ‘em settle in, it’s just going to prolong what we’re going through.”

Francona joked that he envisioned Lackey yelling at him for pulling him from the ballgame, much in the same way the right-hander yelled, “This is mine!” at Angels manager Mike Scioscia last year when he was being pulled from his start in the ALCS. Lackey quipped, “I’ll give him a few starts before I start yelling.”